Life Skills provides success development and short-term, employer driven vocational training for inmates.
Program Locations
This project is offered to inmates at Clarinda, Fort Dodge, Mitchellville, Mt. Pleasant, Newton, and North Central Correctional Facilities. It is a combination of the Iowa Department of Corrections' Going Home Re-Entry project and DMACC's Training Academy-Career Link.
Key Components
- Development of individual success plans utilizing a wraparound process
- Life Skills curriculum delivered through Training Academy-KEYS-Career Link modules
- Vocational training provided by DMACC Continuing Education
Project Goals
- To enable offenders to successfully reenter the community.
- To allow offenders to assume personal responsibility and work toward self-sufficiency.
- To increase offenders' financial responsibility.
- To increase the level of educational achievement for eligible incarcerated offenders.
- To enable offenders to obtain and retain long term employment.
Primary Collaborators
- Central City Community Development
- Department of Corrections
- Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning
- Fifth Judicial District DCS
- Institute of Social and Economic Development
Life Skills Link to Success Overview
The Life Skills modules and Vocational training provides success development and short-term, employer driven vocational training designed to meet individuals where they are currently and help them move along a career ladder for advancement to higher paying positions. Both will be offered 4 times per year on a 12-week training cycle at the 3 correctional facilities.
Training Academy-KEYS-Career Link training will be for 3 hours per day, 5 days per week. Offenders will also spend 3 hours per day during these 12 weeks in an Office Skills training class. This is a total of 6 hours per day in the classroom for a period of 12 weeks.
The Office Skills curriculum provides a basic understanding of the components in the Office 2000 software series: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. These components will provide the offenders with a basic literacy in the most frequently used computer applications.
Assessment-Training Academy-KEYS-Career Link Timeline
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Week 1: Orientation, Assessment, and Career Development Plan
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Weeks 2-6: Training Academy: Life Skills and Job Readiness Preparation
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Weeks 7-9: KEYS: Keys Essential to Your Success
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Weeks 10-11: Career Link: Getting, Keeping, and Advancing on the Job
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Week 12: Post Assessment
Continuing Education Vocational-Technical Training Timeline
DMACC Continuing Education and the Project Coordinator will work with the institutions and employers to research and develop applicable on-site technical training. The goal of this phase of the project is to ensure that offenders are trained in a trade that will allow them to obtain and retain employment that pays a livable wage.